ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that a number of conditions which, if taken as system changes that are not fatal or threatening to public administration, could lead to an organic environment favorable to public involvement in the negotiation of policy alternatives. The present preoccupation with rationalism as the legitimizing process for issue-resolution will have to give ground to consensus methods. The old habit of "keeping the natives guessing" gave decision-making enough of an edge to throw intervenors off balance and weaken their response. The management side has to disclose freely its decision rules and its information base. The "public" to be involved should be balanced rather than one-sided. The adversary connotation in public involvement will have to be replaced by the attitudes of co-responsibility. Agreed-upon "indicators" should be formulated and refined to provide a frame of basic agreement on which the public-involvement process can be constructed.
